The Living Bride
by NebulousMistress
Summary: Greek Mythology AU. Lord Plasmius of the Underworld sees the two children of the great ghost hunter Madeline and desires one to be his bride. Pompous Pep.


This... needs some explaining.

So Tangerine Catnip and myself got inspired to begin a second RP. A very different RP. Let's just say... I was inspired by that RP to write this. It's the Rape of Persephone with a twist. I know it reads strange, that's intentional. I attempted to mimic the structure of a story recited orally.

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Once, long ago, there was a boy named Daniel. He was the son of Madeline, the greatest ghosthunter in the land. This boy had an older sister Jasmine who looked after him. The pair of them were inseparable. Daniel was a flighty boy, always getting into trouble. Jasmine was his teacher as well as his sister, so blessed with wisdom and knowledge was she. She watched over her brother while their mother did her work, protecting the people in the world of the living from the evil unquiet dead. While Madeline guarded the farmers and the shepherds her children played in the fields, safe in the knowledge that their mother and father would not let anything happen to them.

For their father was none other than Jack, the magistrate of the land. His laws decided the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead. It was in his lab that the sole permanent portal between the realms stood. And it was in that lab where Plasmius, lord of the underworld, came to pay him a visit.

"Vladimir my friend!" cried Jack. "It has been many long years since we have met like this. Twenty I believe. How are you, my friend?"

Plasmius bristled. "Those twenty years of which you speak I have spent in exile from the world of the living," he said. His voice was cold and hard as were all the voices of the dead. "But, dear friend..."

"Anything for you," Jack promised.

Plasmius waved his hand in front of a mirror. That mirror changed, glowing with magic to show a scene of two youths in a field. One, a girl, scolded the antics of the other, a boy, yet did nothing to stop him as she ran after him and joined in his innocent revelry. "Your children are grown by now, are they not?" Plasmius asked. "And yet their mother has turned down all suitors who might come to claim them into marriage."

"Yes, it seems sometimes that she plans to keep them as her children forever," Jack mused. "I hear she will choose one to take up her own mantle."

"I know that all who approach her are turned away and bound into agreement not to press the matter. So, Jack, my friend, I come to you. I wish to take a bride."

"I can think of no better to have the hand of my daughter than you, Lord Plasmius."

"Not your daughter, Jack. Your son."

And so, with Jack's permission Plasmius made his plans. The two siblings did not often part from one another and so it was difficult to capture the one he desired. Still, Plasmius was a patient man. One day his patience paid off when Jasmine fell asleep under a shade tree one pleasant day. Daniel, as he was not tired, wandered off into the fields looking for some trick to play on his sister.

From below Plasmius rent the field asunder. Daniel stood frightened in front of the great blue-skinned monster before him. And then it came for him. Daniel screamed and attempted to flee. Plasmius gave chase and easily caught the boy, hoisting him in the air like a maiden. With his prize in hand Plasmius descended back to the underworld, to the land of the dead.

When Jasmine awoke she could not find her brother. There was no sign of him in the field for the ground had been made anew. She searched for him, calling his name. "Brother, Daniel my little brother, where are you?" she cried. She searched long into the night, long after their mother demanded they come home yet still she could not find him. Finally she went home to her mother.

"Why are you home late?" Madeline asked. "And where is your brother?"

"Oh Mother, I'm so sorry," Jasmine cried. "I could not find him! I fell asleep under a tree and when I awoke he was gone! I looked all over for him, Mother, honest!"

"Oh by the Observants!" Madeline cried. "We must find him!"

Meanwhile, in the underworld Plasmius had his bride, his Daniel.

"I have taken you to make you my bride, my dear Daniel," Plasmius explained. "Your father has allowed this for he and I have known each other for many, many years. He feels I will make you a good husband and so graciously offered me your hand in marriage."

"But... my hand was not his to give!" Daniel cried.

"Nor was it your own," Plasmius said. "You remember your friends Samantha and Tucker, do you not?"

"Of course! I miss them. They have not been to see me in many months and I do not know why."

"I know why, Daniel. Each of them asked for your hand and your mother rejected them without consulting you. She did not consider your hand to be yours to give. She would have kept you for herself as she keeps your sister. Your father does not wish that for you and so I agreed to make you my queen."

Daniel had never thought of ruling as a queen before. The idea intrigued him. Yet he was not swayed. He missed the life he had in the world of the living with his sister and his mother. He missed the feel of sunlight and the sound of grass waving in the wind. He missed the trees and the sky.

Over the months Plasmuis showed him many wonders. Caves of the underworld populated by great flying monsters and adorned with crystals that shone like the stars. Vast pools of dark water where within lurked the sleeping souls of sailors. Daniel was given a bed made of the softest goose down and a sky of swirling black and green. He was tempted with the finest foods the underworld had to offer: cakes and pies, roast beast and pheasant, bread and ale.

Yet Daniel remembered one truth spoken to him long ago by his father. 'All those who eat the food in the world of the dead are doomed to dwell there for all time.' And thus Daniel was not tempted.

Plasmius was worried for his young bride. He showed the boy the wonders of the underworld, reveled in Daniel's wonder and contentment. Yet still the boy would not eat. He was growing thin and pale, much like the shades of the unquiet dead. And so Plasmius begged the boy. "Why do you not eat anything, my dear?"

"Because I know that if I do I will be doomed to stay here forever," Daniel answered. "I miss my mother and sister so."

Plasmius tried again, tempting the boy with cookies and cream, roast chicken and duck, cheese and wine. Still Daniel would not be tempted.

"You are fading into a shade, my dear," Plasmius lamented. "You will stay here regardless if you do not eat something for you will be dead."

Daniel held his empty stomach. He was so hungry and yet he would not touch the foods offered to him. "I will only eat food grown under the sun, in the wind and rain," he finally agreed. "I will only eat the food of the living."

And so Plasmius sent his three best messengers to fly across the world of the living, to search for food for their queen. After days of searching they returned with their find.

A single pomegranate with six withered seeds. Plasmuis demanded news from his messengers, demanded to know why this was all they could find.

"But Boss," said the first vulture. "There's no food growin' up there."

"And the shades, they're runnin' free," said the second vulture.

"The hunter Madeline, she's given up her post while she's been lookin' for her son," said the third vulture.

"The shades, they're runnin' all around, scarin' the people into not plantin' no food and harvestin' no crops," the three said in unison. "The unquiet dead are takin' over the world of the livin'."

"I have no control over the unquiet dead," Plasmius said. "Madeline should be protecting the world of the living from them. If she will not then the Observants will enforce their will upon her. Very well, my messengers." With that he dismissed them and took their find to his bride. He offered Daniel the pomegranate with its withered seeds.

"You did this for me?" Daniel asked.

"I sent my best messengers to the world of the living, my dear," Plasmius said. "They searched far and wide and yet this is all they could bring me."

Daniel held the pomegranate with its withered seeds. One by one he ate them. Though dry and withered he felt them nourish him. His eyes glowed with life and he smiled at his husband Plasmius. For while he missed his life with his mother and sister he had grown fond of his life here with his husband.

Six months had passed and Daniel accepted his life as queen of the underworld. However Madeline and Jasmine had never stopped searching.

Finally, the great god of time Clockwork came down from the heavens. He heard the cries of the people chased by ghosts and could not bear to watch the world fall into darkness. He sought out the great ghost hunter Madeline, finding her and her daughter as they searched the world of the living for her lost son.

"You will not find him here," Clockwork said.

Madeline drew her weapon and aimed it at the spirit before her. "And what would you know of my son, missing these past six months?" she demanded.

"Madam, I am Clockwork and I know all that was, is, and will be. I am the master of time. Your son was taken by the lord of the underworld, Plasmius."

"And what does Plasmius want with my boy?"

"Why, to be his living bride," Clockwork said. "Young Daniel's hand was granted to Plasmius by Jack, his father. He did not tell you because you had already rejected other suitors seeking his hand, the youth Tucker and the maiden Samantha. You must go down to the world of the dead to find your son."

Madeline nodded. "Thank you, Clockwork, oh God of Time. Thank you with all of my heart." She grabbed her daughter's arm and the pair of them ran to the portal.

Within the lands of the dead mother and daughter faced many trials and much darkness, some of which are stories of their own. But after many days of travel the pair of them at last came upon the great castle of the lord of the underworld. They were welcomed to the castle with opened arms by the three vultures and led to the throne room where Plasmius and Daniel sat upon thrones made of bone and gems.

"Mother!" Daniel cried. He leapt up from his throne and ran to her, throwing himself into her arms. "I've missed you so much!"

Madeline held her son close and wept into his neck. "I've missed you to, my beloved son."

"And Jasmine, my sister! The months have been long without your counsel."

"And mine without your antics, dear brother," Jasmine said.

A feeling of dread came across the great hunter Madeline as she held her son. She pulled out of his embrace to look at him at arm's length. "Daniel, my son, my precious boy," she said. "Did you eat anything here in the world of the dead?"

"I did, Mother," he confessed. "I was so hungry. But I knew if I ate anything that came from this land I would be bound to it forever. I had Plasmius send messengers to search the world of the living for something I could eat. They brought me a single pomegranate with six seeds inside it."

Madeline glared at Plasmius upon his throne. He smiled in return with his blood red eyes shining. "My dear Madeline," he said. "I did not wish to steal your son from you. But he had refused food and drink for so long he had become as a shade, pale and lifeless. I would have done anything to see him avoid that fate. My vultures scoured the world of the living but found it barren. Ghosts ravaged the lands and people neglected to plant their crops because you abandoned your oath to protect the worlds from those I cannot control. I would have given anything, even my own throne, to avoid losing him to shadow and dust."

Plasmius rose from his throne and drifted down to his bride. He draped his swan-white cape over Daniel and held the boy close. "He has eaten here in the world of the dead and here he will stay."

Madeline grabbed her son's hand and made to drag him away with it. "No, Lord Plasmius," she said. "He has only eaten food from the world of the living. He's not bound by the laws of the underworld. He will return with us."

Both parties saw that they would not yield. It seemed that war between the living and the dead would be declared until...

"Stop!" cried Jasmine. "Mother, Daniel has eaten here in the underworld. Therefore he is not living and cannot stay with us. Lord Plasmius, Daniel has only eaten food from the world of the living. Therefore he is not dead and cannot stay here."

"What's your point?" Plasmius asked.

"He is not living and he is not dead," Jasmine said. "He is both and neither. No one of us has claim over him. Not you, Mother, and not you, Lord Plasmius. He is half ghost."

And so an agreement was made. Madeline would go back to protecting the world of the living from the unquiet dead. As Daniel was half ghost he would return with his mother and sister to the world of the living. There he would stay for six months before returning to the world of the dead and spending six months with his husband.

Plasmius could not deny his bride anything. And so he kissed Daniel goodbye, knowing he would return.

Lord Plasmius was a patient creature. And in six months that patience was rewarded when his Daniel returned to him.

End

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For those waiting for the next chapter of Care and Training, you can relax. Day 3 is RPed, it just needs editing. We'll start RPing Day 4 soon enough.


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